A Girl on the Shore by Inio Asano

Rating: ★★★★

Genre: Young Adult literature, teen romance

Medium: Paperback, graphic novel

Synopsis: Koume is a young girl in pursuit of a boy. Keisuke is a young boy in pursuit of Koume. But, neither are able to get what they want for the time being. Koume wants a boy who is too mature and reckless for her. Keisuke wants the selfish and attractive Koume. Koume, unable to obtain her crush, settles for Keisuke’s body. And, of course, nothing good can come from a selfish, sexual girl and a depressed, longing boy. Both of them are searching for something bigger than either of them, and the quest for it transpires before high school exams take place!

Review: What I expected and what I got were two completely different things, and I was pleasantly surprised! However, don’t read this in public–this is a manga and boy, let me tell you, it has a lot of steamy scenes. Which, first of all, I really enjoyed! These kids are teenagers, and they’re doing what teenagers do, which is exploring their bodies. It’s so nice to be thrust into a story where the two main characters are already together. By establishing that, we’ve passed the honeymoon phase, and we’re readily more able to enter the plot of the story.

The overarching theme of the novel was beautiful, and helped the plot close full-circle. The art is stunning: you can tell Asano took a lot of time in order to perfect it. All in all, if you’re looking for a quick, steamy read, this is the book for you! Alternatively, if you’re looking for a graphic novel which depicts struggles that have to do with the romance and struggles that have to do with the characters separately, this is the book for you!